Nokia and Orange Group have signed an agreement to collaborate on the development of 5G services.

Under the new agreement, Nokia and Orange will drive the definition and development of these new services, with a focus on making the transition from 4G to 5G network connectivity in the most efficient way in terms of power, operations, and cost effectiveness, and with the highest level of quality and reliability. Furthermore, the companies will build on existing joint innovation programs, as well as work with other partners, to develop, trial, and introduce solutions that will make 5G a commercial reality and drive the digital transformation of vertical industries.

The companies will leverage Nokia’s Flexi Base Station and 5G-ready AirScale radio access portfolio, the AirFrame data center platform, telco cloud, and cybersecurity technologies to create applications making use of 5G's ultra-low latency and ultra-high reliability. This work will also include the application of ultra-broadband leveraging new frequency bands; cloud RAN and massive MIMO; IoT; end-to-end network slicing techniques; and energy efficiency techniques.

The collaboration will also leverage existing research collaboration between Orange Labs and Nokia Bell Labs and establish joint innovation platforms at the Nokia Paris Saclay premises on the outskirts of the French capital, and at the Nokia campus in Lannion, in Western France, in collaboration with two Orange's research and innovation sites, Orange Gardens in Chatillon and Orange Labs in Lannion. The companies will open up the laboratories to work with their respective innovation partners, including local enterprises, vertical application providers and local start-ups, to accelerate the ecosystem that will be created around 5G.

Competitive Carriers Association (CCA) became a member of the Communications Information Sharing and Analysis Center (ISAC).

The Communications ISAC, through its partnership with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the National Coordination Center for Communications (NCC), is a collaboration between government and industry stakeholders to monitor and prevent harm to America’s telecommunications infrastructure. The Communications ISAC operates as a hub for telecommunications industry participants to share and analyze information on network vulnerabilities, intrusions, and other threats.

CCA CEO Steven Berry said the association is “pleased” to represent CCA members to the Communications ISAC, and looks forward to “facilitating greater CCA member integration with the Communications ISAC, particularly with our small carrier members.”

Data from Global Wireless Solutions found AT&T’s network improvements in Washington DC over the last two years yielded the best performance results during President Donald Trump’s Jan. 20 inauguration.

In terms of network performance in the National Mall during the day’s events between 10am (i.e. pre-inauguration) through to the conclusion of the inauguration ceremony itself, GWS said AT&T ranked first in all of its OneScore metrics, including overall reliability for both voice and data, overall packet data (considering data speed and reliability), social media tasks, and data speed alone. AT&T was followed in the rankings by Verizon, T-Mobile and Sprint, GWS said.

The metrics further revealed that for data tasks collected on the Mall – such as downloading or uploading a video (4MB file size) – AT&T’s throughput was, on average, double that (or more) of their closest competitor. Additionally, Sprint’s and T-Mobile’s networks experienced very low levels of task success rate during the testing on the Mall – during this time Sprint failed more than 4 out of every 10 task attempts.

GWS said its metrics came from the measurement of approximately 15,000 voice and data tasks at the National Mall and on the inauguration parade route between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. on January 20.

Dialog Semiconductor, a provider of integrated power management, AC/DC power conversion, solid state lighting, and Bluetooth low energy technology, in partnership with Energous Corporation, the developer of WattUp, a wire-free, over-the-air charging technology, announced the availability of the DA4100 RF-transmit Integrated Circuit (IC). The new IC simplifies the implementation of WattUp wireless power transmitter systems making them smaller and more cost-effective.

The new DA4100 WattUp IC is the first chip to be made available following the announcement of Dialog Semiconductor’s strategic partnership and investment in Energous Corporation in November 2016. The investment and partnership saw Dialog become the exclusive component supplier of WattUp ICs and allows Energous to leverage Dialog’s broad sales and distribution channels to accelerate market adoption.

The WattUp wireless power RF-transmit IC integrates the ARM Cortex-M0+, RF transmitter and power management functionality into a single 7mm x 7mm IC. It also features on-chip DC-DC conversion and software, providing seamless integration to Dialog’s SmartBond family of highly integrated, low power BLE SoCs. The new IC minimizes required board space, enabling ultra-small charging transmitters and simplifying WattUp’s wireless power transmitter system implementation.

Evaluation kits of the DA4100 WattUp wireless power RF-transmit IC are sampling now.